1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of health care billing systems, and more particularly to financing health care treatment.
2. Background of the Invention
Current methods employed by health care organizations in the qualification of applicants for health care financial assistance generally include the manual interpretation of demographic, health care and financial data. The interpretation of such data can include the comparison of the data with written guidelines provided by public and private agencies offering health care financial assistance through grants, tax fund programs, and government programs such as Medicaid and Medicare. Additionally, many health care financial assistance programs require the interpretation of financial data, such as those obtainable through conventional credit reporting, as part of the grant process. Still, the interpretive result can be characterized as having less than desirable accuracy.
Public and private financial assistance programs, of which there can be dozens at any time, have proven helpful in defraying some expenses experienced by health care providers in providing health care services to individuals of less than adequate means. The suitability of individual assistance programs, however, can vary depending upon the demographic, health care and financial data of each patient. Yet, identifying suitable financial assistance programs can be difficult in view both of the changing number and type of financial assistance programs, and the inaccuracies associated with interpreting the demographic, health care and financial data. In many cases, the successful identification of suitable assistance programs can depend on the experience, training and knowledge of individual admitting and billing clerks employed by the health care provider.